With extensive study and understanding of cytochrome P450 (CYP) epoxygenase, attention has been increasingly devoted to its function in physiology and pathophysiology. Especially, the CYP metabolic pathway of arachidonic acid (AA) discovered 20 years ago has been suggested to be focal points in the present research of human biology and pathophysiology. AA-CYP epoxygenase metabolizes arachidonic acid to four different epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs), namely 5,6-, 8,9-, 11, 12-, 14, 15-EETs. CYP epoxygenase consists of two types, 2C and 2J. Some studies have indicated that 2C is widely distributed in organism, particularly abounding in liver and vein. At present, six clones of 2J have been found and only 2J2 is expressed in human, particularly abundant in heart and vascular endothelial cells. It has been found by us and foreign experts that EETs play an important role in the homeostasis regulation of cardiovascular system, for regulation of blood pressure, protection of heart and vascular endothelial cells, and anti-apoptosis. However, our research indicates that epoxygenase gene selectively overexpresses in human tumor tissues, thereby promoting the proliferation and metastases of tumor cells and decreasing the apoptosis of antitumor cells. Thus, the study is extremely important for tumor treatment. Tumor is a frequent and common disease of people in modern society, with bad prognosis and high mortality. Furthermore, it has been a main cause of death in our country and even in the world. It is a multigenic, multistep, and multistage regulated chronic disease and no good treatment effects achieved using conventional drugs. With the development of the theory and technology of molecular biology, particularly the introduction of gene therapy, it is possible to get good results for tumor treatment. However, as an important medical industry in the 21st century, gene therapy exhibits disadvantages, for example, the choice of gene therapy vectors.
For gene therapy for tumor, we have constructed a recombinant adeno-associated virus comprising antisense human CYP2J2 cDNA and obtained high titer virus meeting the requirements for tumor treatment. It has been verified in animal experiments that it can inhibit the growth of tumor cells. So there is a hope of truly meeting the requirements of clinical treatment. In addition, we have studied the function and mechanism of AAV-CYP epoxygenase inhibitor for inhibiting the proliferation of malignant tumor have demonstrated the pharmaceutical applications of AAV-CYP epoxygenase selectively overexpressed in human tumor with CYP epoxygenase inhibitor inhibits the proliferation of malignant tumor.